Sunshine Coast population growth addressed in State Government’s new specialist team

A specialist team will partner with developers and local councils to ensure regions including the Coast can cope with the population boom expected.

Holiday traffic jam on Hastings street in Noosa as crowds pack in to the popular tourist town. Picture: Lachie Millard

A specialist team will partner with developers and local councils to ensure regions including the Sunshine Coast can cope with the population boom expected within the coming decades.

About five million people are expected to live in southeast Queensland within 20 years and an extra 794,000 homes are needed to accommodate the boom.

Planning Minister Steven Miles announced the Growth Areas Delivery Team on Wednesday so cities and regions between Noosa and the Gold Coast could keep up with population growth and demand for housing and infrastructure.

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A Sunshine Coast Council spokesman said the council looked forward to working with the government.

"Council has a well-established and productive working relationship with the Queensland Government on matters relating to urban land supply and planning for growth and looks forward to working with the Deputy Premier and his department on this initiative for south east Queensland," the spokesman said.

Steven Miles announced the Growth Areas Delivery Team would be tasked with ensuring areas between Noosa and the Gold Coast could cope with population increases. Picture: Sarah Marshall

The Coast is expected to have a population of more than 500,000 by 2041, an increase of about 170,000 people.

"Queenslanders want to know that when they're ready to buy their first home, they will be able to do so without being priced out of the market or when they're ready to retire and downsize, they can do so without the need to move far away," Mr Miles said.

"Queensland's population is booming and I want to ensure our government and local councils can keep up with the increase in demand for land, housing and the supporting infrastructure that comes with it."

The team will partner with developers, local government, utility providers and the government to support planning and funding arrangements for growth areas.

Mr Miles said the team's first task would be to identify a pilot site by the end of the month for a new growth area.

"The pilot site identified will be an example of how local and state governments and the private sector can work together to plan for better communities," he said.

"The team will also work to bring land in the under-utilised urban footprint to market sooner and ensure that quarterly local government infrastructure reporting identifies infrastructure spending and delivery for larger councils."

The State Planner will work with Economic Development Queensland to establish the group.

Originally published as Sunshine Coast population growth addressed in State Government’s new specialist team